Believe it or not social networking has an upside and downside. Since Facebook has become the biggest social networking site on the planet it’s broken barriers like no other. People use Facebook to find lost long friends or s/o, meet new people, put up ads or advocate for change. Everyone I know has already signed up or is signing up as I type this entry.

A feature I hate with a passion.

The one thing I don’t like is the friend request feature. It can really get you in trouble. If you have a facebook account by now you know what I’m talking about. I’m the type of person who would rather know who it is that I’m adding on my space. After being heatedly questioned about why I didn’t add someone from school I had to pretend like I stopped using facebook for a month till the person finally gave up or forgot.  I’ve also gotten requests from different parts of the world. I don’t know why, but maybe there are more people with similar names. I definitely don’t add people I have never met in my life. I like my facebook space. We can’t all afford a piece of real estate, but we can have a virtual one. Some use different analogies. I say it’s my own piece of real estate. I’ve found lots of friends I’ve lost contact with over the years. It can be fun, but I’m a skeptic.

Don’t be stupid.

I’m more careful about my security settings. Depending on how well I know someone I will set up my account in a way so that it doesn’t show so much personal information. Maybe it’s because I’ve already experienced failed attempts of having my account hacked into in the past. Another issue is people you really really don’t like requesting for you to add them as a friend. I mean in my opinion if we don’t speak in real life why the hell would I want to add you on my facebook friends? We don’t call, text, email, hang out  or have any other way of communicating and most importantly we don’t get along. So why would you feel that we should be friends? I know some people who just like to add random people on their facebook. Is this to show that they have a big long list of friends so people don’t think of them as loners? Hmm..I don’t know but I always wonder. I know a friend who has over 700 people on their “facebook friends” list, but when I ask if they keep in touch my friend says no “I just added them a long time ago. I keep meaning to remove them but I haven’t had time.”

What else is new?

That’s just one reason, but I’m also the type of person who would like to write freely without judgment. This comes to my next point for not adding certain people to your facebook friends.  This summer I am having a family reunion with some relatives of mine. I haven’t seen them in over 10 years. Yes this reunion is way overdue. You may say how wonderful and exciting and I would agree, but now I’m finding that they too have joined the facebook club. I say club because “bandwagon” is overused and I rather toss that aside. My point is this. I respect my relatives, but I don’t know if they’ll feel the same way if I would add them on my facebook friends list. I mean it’s not like I write scandalous things on my facebook, but I don’t feel that I could be myself in my own space if I add them. I may comment on something that they may not approve of and knowing my family there is always talk. So to keep my sanity my answer is the same as what I would say to any dealer who asks me if I wanted to smoke a joint.   NO!